Christin's Words from Sunshine Hill

If it is to be music

you must be present to it, must offer to it

a profound self-remembering.

-from Altar Music

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

REFLECTIONS

Turning right from Casa Cuervo, Mo and I walk up the road to Beaver Pond. It's quiet. Not one neighbor is outside. The throaty cry of a crow--alright--but it is distant. A red dragonfly tipping the rushes. Cool breeze from the Bay. I'm thinking how plans change. Sometimes all the planning seems to have been a waste of time.

John and I planned to put the cottage on the market, sell furniture of mine and of his, rent a U-Haul, and combine all that remained of our "stuff" at Sunshine Hill. In fact, I'd already begun clearing space. I liked it. The house was less cluttered. But even with the space, we wondered how long it would take us to sort our things out once we unloaded the moving van. We'd keep them in the garage and do it bit by bit. "I'm excited about this," I grinned.

The first day here I put a bunch of John's things on Craig's list. Late that afternoon I remembered the feel of being here last winter, the stark little upstairs room where I could write, the simplicity of upkeep in a smaller house. We went for a walk along the bay where Mt. Baker seemed to float in the sky over the blue water. "We could keep it," I ventured. "We could use it as a writing retreat…say, two weeks every two or three months we could make the trip."

Back at the cottage I checked my email. Already we had four inquiries about our ads. We deleted our postings.

Beaver Pond shimmers in the late afternoon light. Calm waters reflect the trees and grasses along the bank. Mo and I sit on a stone bench while I attempt to connect my own reflections with the realities they represent. All of this has something to do with plans we create and the amazing transformations that come about when we act to make those plans real.

The Root of Beauty

THE EDGE OF TENDERNESS

THE BLUE SHAWL

The FarNear Journals

GYPSY BONES

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About Me

I'm a writer and observer of beauty in nature and people, a singer of praise and a dreamer who stares into both light and darkness hoping to see someday the Face of God.
My journey has led from the northern lakes, to a convent on the prairie, to lifelong education including a doctorate in ministry, to a vocation of midwifery of souls, to this place, Casa Chiara, where the light shines and John Sack and I join our lives, care for nature, pray and contemplate, study and write.
Published Works:
THE ROOT OF BEAUTY: A SPIRITUAL MEMOIR, THE EDGE OF TENDERNESS: A MEMOIR, THE BLUE SHAWL,THE FARNEAR JOURNALS, GYPSY BONES,
ALTAR MUSIC,
CIRCLE OF MYSTERIES,
WOMANCHRIST,
BLESSINGS,
FINDING STONE,
CARING COMMUNITY,
A CRY IN THE DESERT.
Los Angeles Times Best Novel of 2000 for ALTAR MUSIC.
Recipient of four prizes/commendations for CIRCLE OF MYSTERIES.